St Joseph’s Pipe Band feature Gaelic Games correspondent at Croke Park:
By Cian O’Connell
Croke Park will always matter to Pat Nolan. During last Sunday’s All-Ireland SFC Quarter-Finals at GAA headquarters, Nolan was part of the action.
Nolan, Gaelic Games Correspondent for the Irish Daily Mirror, is normally high up in level seven of the Hogan Stand in a working brief. The Tullamore native, though, was busy instead with the St Joseph’s Pipe Band from Clondalkin, who provided the musical entertainment.
Seeing the day unfold from a new angle was an experience for Nolan. “It was very different to a working day,” Nolan explains. “I’d normally go in the Hogan Stand press entrance up to level seven. This time you’re coming in on a bus into the Cusack Stand, you’re under the stadium all day. I didn’t actually get to see much of the football, that is just the nature of it.”
The planning and plotting that goes into a significant occasion at the Jones Road venue was noted by Nolan. “People would be surprised how much goes into it, even the organisation,” he adds.
“Robert Smith, who we dealt with, who runs the show on matchdays at Croke Park, he was brilliant to deal with, very professional. Even stuff like in terms of how we marched out on to the field, we had to go on certain cuts of grass. It isn’t something you’d even think of.
“Just the level of detail, it was very unique because I’ve been to Croke Park hundreds of times for games, press conferences, all sorts of events over the years. Sunday was very unique and very enjoyable.”
In 2003 Nolan performed at the Special Olympics opening ceremony. “It was an amazing event,” Nolan recalls. “It was one of the best nights of my life.
“Other people in the band played too, including Anthony Byrne, who would’ve toured the world with The Celtic Woman show. He’d say the same thing, that the Special Olympics was amazing.
“Sunday was different. The Special Olympics opening ceremony was an enormous, vast event with all sorts of artists, performers, and all of the athletes there, too. I was just a tiny, tiny part of the whole operation, as all of the pipers were.
“It was a bit different on Sunday, we weren’t the main event, obviously, the games were. Still, it was nice we had a platform to showcase pipe band music which is something of a declining art in this part of the world.
“There is a lot less pipe bands now than there was 10 years ago, 50 years ago or 100 years ago. So, from that point of view it was great not just to showcase our band, but the whole pipe band scene in general.”
Music was always on the agenda for Nolan, who is also part of the Tullamore senior football backroom team in 2025.
Christy Dowling, a brother of former GAA President, John, tutored Nolan’s father and uncles. “I come from a musical family,” Nolan says.
“There was a band in Tullamore, one of the oldest in the country. My father, Tom, played in it, and his late brothers Jim and John. Their uncles Philip and Danny Lynam played in the Tullamore band too. So, I was the third generation.
“There is a fourth generation in the family, my cousin’s son in Australia, who is a very accomplished piper too. He played with the band in Tullamore in competitions some years ago, Matthew Spicer.
“The family I grew up in, we all played music. There was 10 of us, we all played instruments, whether we liked it or not. So, piping was what I gravitated towards.
“It was a family thing. It is something I’m very grateful for now, that I do play the pipes. I’ve got great enjoyment out of it over the years and have seen a lot of the world through playing pipes.”
There is always an event imminent for St Joseph’s. “St Joseph’s are a competitive band,” Nolan says. “We play in the All-Ireland championships in Derry on Saturday.
“We will travel to Scotland later this month for the Scottish Championships, and we will be in Glasgow in August for the culmination of the season, the World Pipe Band Championships where 30,000 people will attend.
“There is a lot to being in a competitive pipe band, it slips under the radar in this part of the world. It is a very serious pursuit, particularly in Scotland, obviously, and in the north of Ireland. It’s very enjoyable, but very demanding too when you’re playing in competition.”
Performing at Croke Park was a deal for St Joseph’s with Nolan acknowledging the history involved. “The band hadn’t played there since the 1940s,” Nolan says.
“I’m only a member of the band since 2019, I’d have played with St Colmcilles in Tullamore, that is where I started out. So, I wouldn’t be as well versed on the band’s history as other members are, who are in it all their lives.
“It has been the preserve of the Artane Band, which is the band everyone associates with Croke Park, rightly enough. It was nice to get pipe band music in there and judging from the response in the last few days, there seems to be a very strong appetite from the public.
“We’ve been blown away by the response, genuinely. Hopefully, we will get back in there again in the coming years to continue to promote pipe band music.”